Automating Billion Dollar Brands

频道: YC Root Access
视频: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htAl33M5F54
原文语言: en
统计: 共 37 轮 · Diana 14 · Justin 5 · Kara 5 · 嘉宾 4

[0:00]

[music] I'm excited today to welcome the founders of Confido. Here is Cara and Justin and congratulating you on a $55 million race for series B led by Insight. So, you almost didn't make it to demo day five years ago with this company. We'll talk a bit about that, but let's get started with what Confido is today. So, Confidto is building the AI agent workforce for consumer brands. So, think of any brand that you might see in your refrigerator or your medicine cabinet. They'll use us for everything from accounting to sales planning to figuring out how many raw materials they'll need to actually produce their products.

Diana： 今天很高兴欢迎 Confido 的两位创始人——Kara 和 Justin。先恭喜你们完成 5500 万美元的 B 轮融资，由 Insight 领投。五年前你们这家公司差点没能走上 demo day，这个我们待会儿会聊，不过先从 Confido 今天在做什么说起吧。

Justin： Confido 在为消费品牌打造 AI agent 劳动力。你可以想象任何一个会出现在你家冰箱或药柜里的品牌，从做账、销售规划，到算清楚实际生产产品需要多少原材料，它们全都会用我们。

[0:42] Diana

Who are some of your top customers that you can name?

有哪些头部客户是可以公开说的？

[0:45] Justin

Yeah, so we have divisions of companies like Mars and Unilever, some of the largest CPG companies in the world, and then high growth brands like Lollipop and Dude Wipes and others.

有的，我们的客户里有 Mars、Unilever 这类公司的事业部，它们是全球最大的一批快消品（CPG）公司；还有 Olipop、Dude Wipes 等高速增长的品牌。

[0:54] Diana

Pretty cool. And some of these are six, seven figure deals. What exactly do you do for them?

挺厉害的。而且其中一些是六位数、七位数美元的单子。你们具体为它们做什么？

[1:00] Justin

Well, we're really, really proud of is just how broad the platform is. So, we'll help with everything from accounting automation to sales planning to operational planning in a single system. So, underlying all of this is the unique retail data that these brands have and we use it to power key workflows across the business that automate labor.

我们真正特别自豪的，是这个平台覆盖面有多广。从会计自动化、销售规划到运营规划，我们都能在同一个系统里搞定。这一切的底层，是这些品牌手里独有的零售数据，我们用这些数据去驱动整个业务里的关键工作流，把人工劳动自动化掉。

[1:16] Diana

Let's go back to a little bit uh the origin story of Confido. I think you applied to the summer 21 batch with a very different idea and different name. The name of the company was Outfit. Do you remember what it was?

我们回头聊聊 Confido 的起源故事吧。我记得你们申请的是 2021 年夏季批次，当时是一个完全不同的点子，公司名字也不一样，叫 Outfit。还记得它是做什么的吗？

[1:31] Kara

Yes. Outfit was doing we work for fitness instructors at a time where a lot of fitness was moving outside due to co

记得。Outfit 做的是健身教练版的 WeWork，那时候很多健身活动都在往户外转，因为 co……

[1:39] Diana

and you two had met back in Boston. You were just graduated from MIT and Harvard and decided to do a startup and it was during the remote batch.

你们俩是在波士顿认识的。当时你们刚从 MIT 和哈佛毕业，决定一起创业，赶上的是远程批次。

[1:49]

Yes. What had happened to that idea? Because you basically didn't present to demo day.

嘉宾： 对。

Diana： 那个点子后来怎么样了？因为你们基本上没在 demo day 上台展示。

[1:54] Kara

Yes. So for that idea, we had some very sage group partners who told us it may not be the best idea as soon as we joined YC. Um and essentially told us that you need to pivot. And we looked at the numbers and they were not lying. So we went through a long long pivot hell.

是的。那个点子，我们一进 YC，几位非常睿智的小组合伙人（group partner）就跟我们说它可能不是最好的点子，基本上就是告诉我们：你们得转型。我们看了看数据，他们说得一点没错。于是我们经历了一段很长很长的转型地狱。

[2:16] Diana

It was for like a year.

大概持续了一年吧。

[2:17] 嘉宾

Yes. Mhm.

对，嗯。

[2:18] Diana

And you were basically in the desert searching for water for an idea. And how did this idea come about?

那段时间你们基本上就像在沙漠里找水一样找点子。那现在这个点子是怎么冒出来的？

[2:26] Justin

Yes, it was interesting. It was an idea that was hiding in plain sight. When I was in college, I'd worked for a couple of consumer companies. So, I worked for a football helmet manufacturer that was owned by a family office that I worked for and then I worked for Annheiser Bush as well. I saw the problems that we solve today in those companies. And it's funny, even my parents worked on other either side of these problems. So, uh, my mom was a retail store manager, so I lived I basically grew up in a retail store and my dad sold software to largely consumer companies. So, it's funny. I don't know why it took us a year, but um, you know, it was is very much a hiding in plain sight problem.

对，这事挺有意思的。这个点子其实一直就摆在眼前。我上大学的时候在几家消费品公司干过：我在一家橄榄球头盔制造商工作过，它归一家家族办公室所有，那家家族办公室我也待过；后来我还在 Anheuser-Busch 工作过。我们今天解决的这些问题，我当时在那些公司里都见过。好笑的是，连我爸妈都分别站在这些问题的两头：我妈是零售门店的店长，所以我基本上是在零售店里长大的；我爸则是卖软件的，客户大多是消费品公司。所以说挺好笑的，我也不知道我们为什么花了一年才想到，但它确实是一个一直摆在眼前的问题。

[3:00] Diana

I mean, that's fascinating. You you had this idea within you this whole time, but you thought it was too simple or it's not it's nothing burger.

这太有意思了。这个点子一直就在你身上，只是你觉得它太简单了，或者觉得它不值一提。

[3:08] 嘉宾

No.

不是的。

[3:09]

But there was something that made you decide to go into this direction. What What was that? What was really interesting was when we were doing initial like discovery and validation, we chatted with some of the largest CPG companies in the world. We sent them cold emails and they responded within a couple of days. So, we talked to companies like CocaCola and Dr. Pepper and all of these folks were just willing to talk to us for hours. I I remember talking with someone from Coca-Cola and they were like, "Hey, do you have 2 hours?" And I thought I thought they meant like, "Oh, can I call them back in 2 hours?" They just wanted to talk to me for 2 hours about their problems. And it just shocked me just how manual and uh ultimately underserved this market has been.

Diana： 但总有什么让你们决定往这个方向走。那是什么？

Justin： 真正有意思的是，我们在做最初的需求探索和验证时，跟全球最大的一些快消品公司聊过。我们给它们发冷邮件，几天之内它们就回了。所以我们跟 Coca-Cola、Dr. Pepper 这样的公司都聊过，这些人都愿意跟我们一聊就是好几个小时。我记得跟 Coca-Cola 的一个人聊，对方说：「嘿，你有 2 个小时吗？」我还以为他的意思是「我能不能 2 小时后再给你回电话」，结果他就是想花 2 个小时跟我聊他们的问题。这个市场有多依赖手工、到头来又有多缺乏像样的服务，真的把我震惊了。

[3:48] Diana

Do you remember that moment when you closed that first customer?

还记得签下第一个客户的那一刻吗？

[3:52] Kara

Yes, we actually closed our first customer with a Figma. So prior to writing a single line of code. Um so yeah, I think that it was abundantly clear at that point that it was a real visceral pain and strong need. um when folks were willing to work with a shitty twoperson startup. [laughter]

记得，我们其实是拿一份 Figma 稿签下第一个客户的，那时候一行代码都还没写。所以我觉得那时就已经再清楚不过了：这是切肤之痛、是强烈的需求——人家都愿意跟一个烂得不行的两人小破公司合作。（笑）

[4:16]

The thing that might be counterintuitive is that CPG or consumer package good space is typically not very tech friendly. They're not usually buyers of tech solutions that much, but you figure out something and something with the way you build the product and AI has something to do with it. Tell us about that. Yeah, what's really interesting is CBG brands are big buyers of services. They will buy BPOS, they'll work with consulting firms, they'll use these what are called thirdparty brokers that they'll pay 5% of revenue to to do work for them. So when we came with a proposition of hey, we'll do the work for you is something they were very used to. And the way they talk about it is never as software, it's as hey, is this replacing or augmenting the labor we might otherwise require.

Diana： 可能有点反直觉的是，CPG，也就是快消品这个领域，通常对技术不怎么友好，它们一般不太采购技术方案。但你们摸到了门道，这跟你们打造产品的方式有关，也跟 AI 有关。跟我们讲讲。

Justin： 对，真正有意思的是，快消品牌是服务的大买家。它们会买 BPO（业务流程外包），会跟咨询公司合作，还会用所谓的第三方经纪商（broker），付给对方营收的 5% 来替自己干活。所以当我们带着「嘿，这活我们替你干」这个提案上门时，这是它们非常熟悉的模式。而且它们谈这件事时从来不把它当软件，而是问：这东西是在替代还是增强我们原本需要投入的人力？

[5:04]

What were some of these first uh workflows that you solved? Yes, our first workflow was around a very manual process of logging into many different portals and pulling down information and then automating cash application and accounting workflows and then from there our customers asked us to keep doing more things for them.

Diana： 你们最早解决的是哪些工作流？

Kara： 我们第一个工作流针对的是一个非常手工的流程：登录很多个不同的门户网站，把信息拉下来；然后是把回款核销（把收到的钱对上是哪张发票）和会计工作流自动化。再往后，客户就不断请我们替他们多干点别的事。

[5:26] Diana

The interesting thing is that you're explaining basically things that traditionally a ERP or accounting system would do.

有意思的是，你讲的这些，基本上是传统上 ERP 或会计系统会干的事。

[5:33]

Yeah. But they were not using something like a netswuite. Why is that? And how did you win versus those?

嘉宾： 对。

Diana： 但它们并没有用 NetSuite 之类的系统。为什么？你们又是怎么赢过这些系统的？

[5:41] Kara

Yeah. So traditionally folks have either used Excel sheets or disparate point solutions. So they will have one system that's a Postgress wrapper where they plug in all their information and then they read it back to them. there hasn't been a sort of cohesive platform where the data flows in um automatically and the insights are driven agentically.

嗯。传统上，大家要么用 Excel 表格，要么用各自分散的单点工具。比如他们会有一套本质上就是 Postgres 套壳的系统，把所有信息录进去，再原样吐回给他们看。一直没有一个完整统一的平台，能让数据自动流进来，再由 agent 驱动产出洞察。

[6:04] Diana

So you basically got to the point where you're closing these six seven figure deals and charging the same price as a netswuite which took them about probably like a decade to get there and you did it in less than two years.

所以你们基本上已经做到签下六七位数的单子，收费跟 NetSuite 一样——NetSuite 大概花了十年才走到这一步，而你们用了不到两年。

[6:16] 嘉宾

Yeah.

对。

[6:17] Diana

What's the value prop there?

这里面的价值主张是什么？

[6:18] Justin

So what's really cool within these businesses is we can touch almost every line item on the P&L. So there's heavy manual work that goes into these workflows across accounting and planning. We can automate that work and help them save on headcount. There's also outcomes that we can drive that they otherwise wouldn't be able to achieve. So an agent can reconcile down to a $10 transaction. A human never could. U we were actually chatting with a public company that just signed with us. They didn't review transactions less than $10,000 in this area because it was just so manual. So the system can not only automate the work they were already doing, but go chase after things they never otherwise would have gotten. So it's free money. And then similarly on the planning side of things, you'd be shocked to learn billion-dollar businesses are basically forecasting off of historical averages. Um so there's just massive levers on every line item on the P&L that we can touch that an ERP would just simply never be able to do as as just a basic database.

在这些企业里，特别酷的一点是，损益表（P&L）上几乎每一个科目我们都能触达。会计和规划这些工作流里有大量繁重的手工活，我们能把这些活自动化，帮它们省下人头。还有一些结果是它们原本根本做不到、而我们能帮它们实现的。比如 agent 能对账对到一笔 10 美元的交易，人永远做不到。我们最近其实在跟一家刚签约的上市公司聊，他们在这块低于 1 万美元的交易根本不审，因为太依赖手工了。所以这个系统不仅能把他们原本就在做的活自动化，还能去追那些他们原本永远拿不回来的钱。这等于是白捡的钱。规划这边也类似，你会震惊地发现，十亿美元级别的企业基本上是靠历史平均值在做预测。所以损益表上的每一个科目，都有巨大的杠杆可以撬动，而 ERP 只是一个基础数据库，是永远做不到这一点的。

[7:13]

When Confido is successful, how will the world change? For us, if you walk into a retail store, we'll know if we'll benefit factful if we look and see the brands on the shelf and understand that basically every part of that process had been touched by Confido, whether that's procuring the raw ingredients, pricing the product, forecasting how much is on the shelf. If we touch all of those workflows, we'll have made a big impact.

Diana： 等 Confido 成功了，世界会有什么不同？

Justin： 对我们来说，如果你走进一家零售店，看看货架上的品牌，意识到从采购原料、给产品定价，到预测货架上该摆多少货，这整个流程基本上每个环节都经过了 Confido 之手，那我们就知道自己成功了。如果我们能触达所有这些工作流，就算是产生了很大的影响。

[7:35] Diana

I think there's something interesting about you guys. You are all based in New York and I hear that you don't have any product managers in your team.

我觉得你们团队有个挺有意思的地方：你们全员都在纽约，而且我听说你们团队里一个产品经理都没有。

[7:44]

Yes. How does someone who succeed working at Confider look like?

嘉宾： 对。

Diana： 那在 Confido 能干得好的人，是什么样的？

[7:49] Kara

We have a group of amazing engineers who are very curious and very technical and able to drive to clarity and a lot of ambiguity. So, one of our engineers, shout out to Ben, is our longest tenure engineer and is currently leading our new modules around supply planning and he's doing everything from road mapping and talking with experts and onboarding customers and enabling and being involved in the sales process. So, we have some insane engineers on our end who are able to really just own super gnarly problems and drive to clarity and solve them for our customers,

我们有一群很棒的工程师，好奇心很强、技术很硬，能在大量模糊不清的情况下把事情推到清晰。比如我们有位工程师——在这里点名表扬一下 Ben——他是我们资历最老的工程师，现在正在牵头我们围绕供应计划的新模块。从做路线图、跟行业专家交流，到给客户做上线和赋能，再到参与销售流程，他全都在做。所以我们这边有一些非常猛的工程师，能真正把超级棘手的问题揽下来，推到清晰，然后替客户把问题解决掉，

[8:32] Diana

which seems pretty fun having an engineer that has full ownership of the products and customer interactions.

这听起来挺好玩的：让一个工程师全权负责产品和客户互动。

[8:39] 嘉宾

I think it makes a lot more fun.

我觉得这样会有意思得多。

[8:40] Diana

All right, I think that's all we have, but thank you so much for coming and chatting with us.

好，我想今天就聊到这儿，非常感谢你们来和我们聊天。

[8:44] Justin

Amazing. Cheers, Diana. [clears throat] [music]

太好了。谢啦，Diana。（音乐）

[8:52]

[music]

（音乐）